Not a top weekend for the Alpine, but they still managed to earn a few points with Esteban Ocon finishing seventh in the Sprint Race and Pierre Gasly tenth in the main race on Sunday after a post-race penalty.
New updates are coming at Silverstone for the British GP, a front wing and revised floor, hoping of closing the gap with the likes of Aston Martin, Mercedes and Ferrari.
Let’s dive into the drivers thoughts and perspective of the race and car performance.
Gasly focused on both the positive and negative aspects, as he said: “I think there is definitely some positives. I think we maximised the race and the points that we could score today. On the other side, it feels like we want more and we want to be fighting closer to that top five.
“At the moment, we’re just missing these two or three tenths to Fernando [Alonso] and the Mercedes that finished just ahead of us. We’ve got to keep pushing, keep developing the package we’ve got.
“I will say those two or three-tenths compared to Mercedes and Aston is probably what we’re missing since the start of the year.”
Photo credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
McLaren was among the teams who brought upgrades to the Red Bull Ring, which proved to be hugely beneficial in improving the performance of the MCL60.
Although this might represent a further challenge for Alpine in the battle for P5 in the Constructors’ Championship, it is a sign at the same time that it is possible to improve and fight for something more, as the former AlphaTauri driver explained:
“McLaren was extremely fast this weekend, which is not really a good sign for us, but at the same time it should motivate us. It shows that it’s possible to make big gains. It’s all in our hands and I know we’ve got upgrades planned on the next few races, so [I’m] looking forward to seeing what it brings.
“We know what the weaknesses of the car are and where we need to improve at the moment, but it’s not that easy to fix. Hopefully some of these upgrades are going to help that.
Asked in particular about the new front wing, Gasly in conclusion commented: “It’s definitely going to bring us some performance and, hopefully, Silverstone can be a track that suits us a bit better, as Austria is always a bit particular.
“So yeah, looking forward to next weekend, and seeing what we get out of it.”
On the other side, teammate Ocon did actually make history at the Austrian GP, receiving 4 penalties for track limits that combined for a total of 30 seconds: no one before had received so many penalties in a single race. Plus he also received a five-second time penalty for a near-miss with Williams rookie Logan Sargeant in the pit lane during it. All the penalties drop him from 12th to 14th place.
Taking about his day, Ocon commented on the fact Alpine lacked the pace they’ve shown in recent races versus the likes of McLaren and Williams: “First of all, [we were] lacking pace compared to usual weekends. I think we struggled a lot more with the car on dry conditions this weekend compared to Montreal or other races like Barcelona, where we were easily in the points.
“We got some contact with Yuki [Tsunoda] in the beginning, I don’t think there was damage on the car, but we need to check that exactly. And the unsafe release penalty, which is completely our fault as a team, we got it wrong there, we got five seconds.
“All in all, it made the race quite difficult. We have three days obviously to regroup, understand and come back stronger at Silverstone.”
Photo credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
Regarding the updates, the Alpine driver added: “I think many teams made steps in the last two races and we definitely need to make one as well. So I look forward to seeing what we can do.
“We are still focused on the teams in front of us, that’s very clear, but we can see that the teams behind are also pushing forward.”
On a sprint weekend, there is only a single free practice to run in the whole weekend. It could have been limiting to bring updates with the risk of lacking data. However, Ocon clarifies that the delay of their arrival was not due to the schedule:
“I don’t think the reason was to have a stable weekend because there’s only one practice session. Nowadays, the updates, you fit and forget.
“And yes, you can always optimise how you make them work. That’s very true. But overall, it’s always a step forward.
“What we’re going to fit in Silverstone is going to be a step forward, and we have some more stuff coming before shutdown as well.”
Alpine’s is still fifth in the constructors’ standings, 18 points ahead of McLaren.
